Batumelebi, a Georgian media outlet founded by Mzia Amaghlobeli, who is now in jail, stated that the Revenue Service imposed a garnishment on its bank accounts. While the official reason given for the decision was outstanding debt, the outlet considered it as yet another form of pressure on a media organisation.
According to the outlet, the Revenue Service informed Batumelebi on 1 July that it had an outstanding debt that needed to be paid within five days.
‘Otherwise, they warned that our accounts would be frozen, followed by asset seizure and enforcement proceedings. In other words, the National Enforcement Bureau would sell Batumelebi’s property — including the newsroom’s technical equipment and office space’, the outlet stated.
Batumelebi emphasised that the debt had been acknowledged by them and was being paid — alongside ongoing tax obligations — ‘without any formally imposed payment schedule’.
The company also noted that after receiving the notice of account seizure, it asked the Revenue Service to offer a payment schedule — as allowed under the Tax Code — but the request was denied.
Eventually, on Thursday, a garnishment was imposed on the company — a banking operation through which the state recovers funds from a debtor via the bank.
‘Destroying the media organisation’
The account freeze on Batumelebi came at a time when the final court hearing of its founder was approaching. Amaghlobeli was detained in January for slapping a police officer — an act classified by investigators as ‘assaulting an officer’. The charge could result in up to seven years in prison for the veteran media personality.
Amaghlobeli’s case has been widely condemned by critics both in Georgia and abroad as disproportionate and politically motivated.
Mikheil Gvadzabia
According to Batumelebi, at the beginning of the month the outlet owed ₾136,000 ($50,000) to the state budget. Part of the debt was paid off, leaving a remaining balance of ₾47,000 ($17,340) — in addition to which the company faces ₾126,000 ($46,500) in penalty interest and ₾109,000 ($46,230) in fines.
The publication stated that the garnishment and all other planned financial actions against the company are ‘aimed at breaking Mzia Amaghlobeli and, in the long run, destroying the media organisation she founded’.
As an example of selective enforcement, Batumelebi cited May 2025 data showing that the pro-government TV channels Imedi and Rustavi 2 owed the state ₾17 million ($5.5 million) and ₾25 million ($9.2 million), respectively — yet it was Batumelebi, with a significantly smaller debt, that faced an account freeze.
OC Media reached out to the Revenue Service for comment.
Fundraising campaigns to save the publication
Even before the account freeze, the publication was already in a vulnerable position following the arrest of its founder and a wave of restrictive laws recently passed by the ruling Georgian Dream party, targeting independent media and civil society organisations.
OC Media
In early July, a fundraising campaign was launched via the Gofundme platform in support of Batumelebi, with the proceeds aimed at ‘ensuring [the company staff] have the means to persevere in the face of repression’.
On Friday, the organisation’s employees shared an announcement that its office in central Batumi was up on sale.
Following the news of the account freeze, Georgian journalists launched another fundraising campaign — this time to help cover Batumelebi’s debt to the state, lift the account seizure, and protect the outlet’s assets.
Batumelebi was founded in 2001 in the coastal city of Batumi as an independent media outlet focused on covering human rights violations and official corruption. In 2010, Batumelebi’s founders established the Tbilisi-based news outlet Netgazeti.
In late June, the government-critical radio holding Hereti also reported that its bank accounts had been frozen due to financial debt. Its head similarly pointed out that the state had not taken such strict measures against TV channels owing millions.
Mikheil Gvadzabia
